Ten Reasons Not to Buy a DELL Inspiron Laptop
Unless You like Spending a Lot of Time with Tech Support in India
Remember the slogan, "Dude you're getting a DELL"? Well I was one of those dudes who fell for it.
After being a happy Compaq Presidio user for several years I decided to upgrade. Besides, without a middle man, DELL can offer some awesome deals. Right? Now, I know why. If you don't have anything against outsourcing,
you will if you buy a DELL. You're going to be spending a lot of time talking with people in Bangalore, India. And, they are not in a hurry.
1.The first clue was when I took my new polished silver and Venetian blue laptop to an important client meeting. As soon as I turned in on everyone began staring at me. At first I thought they were impressed, until someone asked if I would mind turning it off. (I have high frequency nerve deafness from service in the Marine Corps and cannot hear high decibel sounds. To my horror, the client explained that my new Dell was emitting a constant high-pitched screech that was brain numbing. Embarrassed, I slipped it back into its handsome carrying case.
2.What the hell, I thought, I'll work on it at home, and I can't hear the screech until my wife said that either I dump the DELL or she would move out. Fortunately, my laptop was still "under contract."
3.Unfortunately, with a DELL you can't just go in to any computer repair shop. All service MUST be performed online or via telephone with technicians in Bangalore, India or Manila in the Philippines. Often you may be switches back and forth between countries, depending upon make a model number.
4.Beginning with a politely unctuous Wahid, I was transferred to seven different departments before we could find someone specifically tasked to solve my problem. Each technician was very polite as he carefully took down my name, address, computer tag, service number and telephone; each time repeating my complaint and waiting for him to write all this down in his report.
5.Finally, after trying to listen to the screech over the phone, someone named assigned me a case number. He determined it was the cooling fan and ordered a replacement part. I was informed that a technician in my home town would contact me to install it.
6.Before the subcontractor repair man could arrive with the fan, my new Dell failed to connect with the internet. It had worked perfectly for several weeks. Now, it failed to connect. After seven or eight hours with various other online technicians and a trip to my own repair guy, it was decided that the internet facing was burned out or defective. During this entire time DELL said that it was the internet provider's problem. It wasn't.
7.The technician arrived with the replacement fan but he warned me that it was a recycled part and might not be exactly the same size. He quickly replaced the fan, dropping several screws on the floor but refused to diagnose the burned out internet card. That would require a separate claim, starting with India.
8.The next two day were spent on the phone to India being transferred more than 32 times. Each time the person on the other end asked me to repeating the same information, over and over. Finally I threatened that if the technician transferred me one more time I would have him fired. I was quickly given a case number to have a technician come to my home and replace the internet facing or whatever.
9.The same dullard showed up with the replacement part. He refused to talk with me or give me eye contact. I asked him to do a quick diagnosis. He refused.
10.Two days later the AD adapter burned out. I diagnosed this problem myself.
I won't bore you with the five additional reasons not to buy a DELL, other than I heard that some of them get so hot that they explode. Never mind calling 911, talk to Vishnu in Bangalore but only if your DELL is still "under contract."
-End-
(apx. 691 words)
Published by Tom Whittingslow
Born curious, I have explored every material and spiritual avenue available and have written about it. My non-fiction book "Living Gods, Broken Idols" summarizes all that I know about both. Go to: www.thom... View profile
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15 Comments
Post a CommentI have owned a gateway for 2 yrs and i plan on getting another I love Gateway and they cant be beat they have better prices and quality than anyone if you need a good quality computer Gateway is the best option.
Get what you pay for??? I could have gone for Hp for $600 cheaper, my wife got her HP 6 months before we got the dell inspirion 1720. The Hp still works great.. not one problem. The Dell has a new Motherboard, power supply, Hard drive, and now it's back in because something else is wrong. Sure, everytime something goes wrong, there is a box at our house the next day to ship it back to them and a week later we have it back, but come on this shouldn;t be happening. One faulty item, sure its possible, but the whole computer faulty.. give me a break. dell is a waste of money. They have ok customer service, we haven't had any problems with them fixing it, but it shouldn't be broken more than it';s fixed. We have had this computer for less than 4 months now, and it's been in for 4 weeks. I suggest that everyone stays away from dell!!!!
Well, I don't have much faith in Microsoft anyway, and I say that most people's problems are the Vista Operating System. I had gotten a Gateway desktop at the beginning of 2007, and Gateway was not given any information about Vista Windows operating system prior to Microsoft forcing them to sell it on their computers. I had major problems and finally just sent back the computer, by the time I got my Dell laptop the manufacturers (Dell & Gateway) had written interfaces to work with the Vista OS so it works ok. When I'm ready to replace it, I will get a Mac though (they're nicer anyway).
This article blows my mind! Not because I just ordered a Dell laptop but because I'm on a Dell laptop responding to this. I haven't had any problems with mines. That's not to say that I won't in the future but I had this laptop for four years and it works like new!
I am from India and imported Dell Inspiron B130 from USA and within few months I had serious issues with optical drive (CD/DVD drive), all the customer did was to eat my internet bandwith for hours in the pretext of diagnosing. They did ship a couple of CDs which they should have given with the laptop. After the warranty period, they don't even accept emails, contacting them becomes a headache. My brother in law, who is still in US, bought himself a new Dell laptop and he is facing the same issue. I feel that Dell components are sturdy or good enough to last regular usage. Don't buy Dell laptops
thanks guys. Ma dad was just thinking to buy a laptop(probably Dell) but now, i'll make sure he doesnt end up whit one of those shitty Dell ones. Thanks again guys.
I had finally had enough come October 2003. I purchased a brand new Apple iBook G4 and haven't looked back. I won't be using Windows or Dell computers again.
I had problems with all three of my Dells, including an Inspiron laptop. The biggest problems, though, were with my second desktop. It just kept eating itself. I'd be on the computer and it'd be working fine, I'd turn it off and go to school, come home and Windows and all of my files were gone. This happened many times. They brought two new motherboards, two new hard drives, and once a new power button (?). Whenever it choked, Dell's only suggestion was to reinstall Windows. Which worked fine for a couple of days. I finally installed a brand new 40gb hdd that I purchased on my own and installed Windows XP. Problems solved, apparently. They also refused to give me a brand new computer despite multiple issues that their hardware replacements didn't fix. With the laptop, it would sometimes eat critical Windows files, and it would freeze up all the time. "Tech support", if you could call it that, was no help whatsoever, and I could barely even understand their broken English. I had finally
Well, folks, I have to agree with all of this. I've had my 5150 for over 3 years and have had everything replaced on it except the screen, and I'm about to send it in to have the motherboard replaced YET AGAIN.
Dell has become quite a joke since they've pushed their customer service out of the country to places that no one can understand.
NEVER AGAIN will I buy or recommend Dell computers.
Well, folks...I have to agree with all of this. I've had my 5150 for about 3 years and have had everything replaced except the screen. I'm getting ready to have it sent in YET AGAIN to have the motherboard replaced AGAIN...this time for the DC jack problem (apparently quite common). My warranty is about up and I'm debating on if I should re-up it for the $$$ or not. It's paid for itself (if you can say that) during the first rounds, but who knows if it will again if I get it again.
Being a former business owner, I used to promote Dell computers over Gateway. Then I saw how much trouble the desktops had and how many I had to repair (customers saw me as a faster solution to the send-it-in or wait-for-the-Dell-tech solutions), but still promoted the laptops...NEVER AGAIN!!! I think I'm going back to Toshiba or some unknown brand. This is getting ridiculous since I'm in the middle of projects and NEED my laptop to do them.
Dell has become a joke...especially since they've push